There are many different processes, tools and workflows available when creating characters. I'll keep things simple by explaining the process and techniques that I use in my own workflow. Although some steps may focus on specific software tools, they should be somewhat transferable between different software packages.

I hope you'll find this series of helpful in some way and if you have any questions feel free to contact me. Let's get started!

Step 1: Do your planning

Before beginning any work on a new model, it's important to analyze the concept art provided and start planning how to create the character. It's also a good idea to gather any extra reference material you may need.

Marc Brunet has created an awesome character concept for this tutorial series. The character has a lot of cool, overlapping, hard surface features, so it's important to have a good understanding of how they sit and flow in relation to each other. Look at your concept and try to determine the best ways to create the different meshes and identify any potential problem areas. Having a plan can potentially save a lot of time further down the track.

Step 2: Create the base mesh

The first phase of the tutorial is to block in the character proportions. This serves as a guide for when we start creating the armor on top. To begin, import a base mesh into ZBrush. You can use any standard human mesh - in this example I'm using a simple generic female base mesh.